Patch Blog: Farm to Dish, Produce Profiles--Brassicas

Last week Farm to Dish profiled grower and some of the fresh produce at his stand. This week we'll take a closer look at the brassica family of vegetables we purchased from him and.

Brassicas and Northeast LA have a historical connection that is often overlooked. Native to the western Mediterranean and parts of Asia, these cabbage family plants were introduced to California by the Spanish in the form of mustards. They were brought as an oil and forage crop as well as a marker of territory. There were no yellow-blooming, native annuals in the area, so mustards were a great way to identify roads and paths. Indeed, winter and spring in Spanish Southern California saw the roads lined in yellow-flowering mustard, replacing the purple-flowering sage paths of the Tongva. The fast growing annual choking out the native sage is a heart-wrenching analogy to what happened when Spanish and Tongva cultures collided. 

These same mustards are now feral in NELA, having escaped the roadsides and cultivated fields of the Spanish. The mustard blooms on our hills and empty lots can now be used to mark the height of the brassica season at the farmer's market. Once the wild mustards have gone to seed and dried up for the year, the brassica season is done as well.

For some reason, the feral mustards did not thrive this year, but there are still plenty, waiting to be gathered by those who know how. If you're interested, the flowers can be identified by the four segmented petals (think of a yellow four leaf clover). This trait gave the brassicas their former name "cruciferous" or "cross-bearing" in Latin. To the best of my knowledge there are no poisonous brassicas so they are a good forage or emergency food source.

With all the great brassicas at the market now, I am too spoiled to forage. While they receive little culinary recognition or glory, the brassica family includes some of our most important food crops. Just about every part of the nutritious plants are edible: the leaves from kale, collards, cabbage, pac choi, turnips and mustards; the roots of turnips, rutabga, radishes; and the flower buds of broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts. The seeds are utilized to make mustard and canola oil.  My mother in law even picks the immature seed pods of radishes and pickles them with chile and vinegar to make a crispy snack.  

Here is a rundown of some of the brassicas available at the market now along with some ways to use them:

Kale: makes great stir fries, the smaller leaves are great additions to salads. Kale is one of the most nutritious cultivated vegetables, along with collard greens, another brassica and practically a genetic twin. I made a stir fried kale with oyster sauce, classically paired with pork belly and chilli, only I've left out the pork belly.

Radishes and Turnips: Pretty 'french breakfast' radishes give a spicy kick to salads or a perfect palate cleanser between tacos. Less well known is their use in soups. Beautiful 'purple globe' turnips can be utilized in many ways, with the greens sauteed and the roots pickled or used in soups, you just have to peel the gorgeous purple skin off first. I used both radish and turnip along with cabbage and broccoli in a brassica-heavy thai veggie soup, perfect for a chilly night.

Cabbage: Besides their use in soup, cabbages also make the base for cole slaws, both the mayonaise laden type as well as the much healthier citrus and vinegar type. Shredded cabbage is also a must as a topping for ensenada style,  beer-battered fish or shrimp tacos.

Broccoli: Broccoli's uses are varied and well known, from simply steamed, stir fried, or eaten raw, plain or with dip. I used it in pad see ew. Though I typically use its cousin, gailan or chinese broccoli, in my pad see ew, I figured that I'd be true to the farmer's market and use western broccoli for this recipe.

Next week we'll go over the cooking instructions for our dishes. For now, I hope that you visit the Old LA Certified Farmer's Market this evening and check out the brassicas! Happy cooking!